My blog has moved!

I have very slowly been moving my blog over to a wordpress site on my own hosting, and the time has finally come to make the switch. I will be switching the feed from this blog over to the new blog after this post so you will get all the posts from the new blog very soon.

So please continue to read and follow over at my new url - http://jezza323.com/blog

I am still getting the post categories and tags sorted, but all the old posts have been moved over, and there are some new posts for you to read also! Enjoy!

Peregrine Winery, Gibbston Valley

Peregrine Winery, Gibbston Valley
Originally uploaded by jezza323

The old building at the Peregrine Winery, Gibbston Valley, Central Otago, New Zealand.

Highly recommend their wines!

Taken with Pentax K200D and Sigma 10-20mm f4.0-5.6

Single shot processed in Lightroom 3

Sunday Morning Stroll

Originally uploaded by jezza323

Went into the city on Sunday morning to collect some tv shows off my work pc and meaning to get some long exposure IR shots. As it turns out im far too lazy to lug my tripod around the city on a Sunday morning, so just took a couple of street shots instead.

I spotted these interesting shadows so was just waiting for the right person to come along to snap this shot.

Taken with the Pentax K200D and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens @ 50mm f6.3, ISO 200 and 1/1250 shutter speed

Tree with Trails

Tree with Trails
Originally uploaded by jezza323

A short startrail with a nice foreground tree. This is a single exposure, with long exposure noise reduction switched on in the camera. I was quite lucky that there was almost no wind, the tree seems very sharp considering the length of the exposure.

I took this on my Moogerah camping trip

Remax Balloon Flight

Remax Balloon Flight
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Here is a shot taken with my lovely Tair-11a lens. As we were getting ready to head off some balloons launched and drifted across between the lookout and the city. The 135mm Tair-11a provided a "close up" (not very close at all really!) of the early morning light on the balloon.

Morning Shadows

Morning Shadows
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is a shot I have been wanting to get for a while, but am often running late or don't have my camera with me. I finally took time out on my way to work to capture the great shadows along the sidewalk between the train station and my building in the morning.

The sun reflecting off the paving really contrasts against the deep long shadows well. This is also the first shot posted online from my brand new Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens which I purchased from Citiwide online ebay store. I had a $50 paypal credit for a survey and a 20% off paypal voucher which made the purchase much cheaper than it had rights to be.

Enjoy!

Night Lights and Dawn Sky

Night Lights and Dawn Sky
Originally uploaded by jezza323

View from Mt Cootha Lookout before the lights go out, but while the sky is beginning to light up

Taken with the Pentax K200D body, noompty's Pentax SMC DA 70 f2.4 Limited lens, Slik 500DX Pro tripod and remote cable release. The detail from this lens is quite amazing

3 shots at +/- 2.0 EV blended using Photomatix Exposure Blending.

Originally uploaded by jezza323

Dawn at The Summit - Mt Cootha

Dawn at The Summit - Mt Cootha
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Tair-11a Bokeh

Tair-11a Bokeh
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Autumn Sunrise - Mt Cootha

Autumn Sunrise - Mt Cootha
Originally uploaded by jezza323

50mm Fence Post

50mm Fence Post
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Was mucking around with the 50mm nice n wide during the day while camping at Queen Mary Falls, this is one of the better shots I managed to pull out

The shadow was a bit harsh, but i think ive overdone the fill light a little, seems to be lacking contrast now :(

Taken with Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC A 50mm f1.7 and processed in Lightroom 2.5

Moogerah Reflections

Moogerah Reflections
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is a bit of a "From the vault" shot. This was back from the first trip to Moogerah.

Taken with Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II, Slik 500 DX Pro tripod and cable remote.

HDR'ed using Photomatix, Tonemapping using Details Enhancer method from 3 shots, taken at +/- 2.0 EV

More Main Range Waterfalls

More Main Range Waterfalls
Originally uploaded by jezza323

I can't remember the name of this waterfall. There is a lookout to view it on the downhill run from Queen Mary Falls to Kilarney.

This is just a CPL filter shot this time, but closed the aperture right down, turned Shake Reduction (IS/VR/OS whatever your manufacturer of choice calls it) and snapped away about 7 handheld shots at 0.5s exposure. This was the sharpest, and i think its pretty damn good!

Taken with Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II lens and Kenko CPL filter.

Processed in Lightroom 2.5, minor adjustments only.

Queen Mary Falls

Queen Mary Falls
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is Queen Mary Falls itself, in the Main Range National Park (at the very southern end).

Its a 2km loop walk to the bottom of the falls from the carpark and back, little steep at the beginning going down, but not too bad. I wandered down with my camera gear and tripod.

This is the very first shot i ever took with the Hoya NDX400 filter (once I had worked out the exposure). I have found with my body I need to set exposure compensation to +2.0 just to get the correct exposure when using the NDX400 filter. This isnt a real problem as generally I will be wanting to use exposures longer than 30 secs anyway, which means ill be into bulb mode territory.

This was shot using the Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II kit lens, Hoya NDX400 filter and Slik 500DX Pro tripod. It was processed in Lightroom 2.5 but I can't quite remember what I did with it...

Hillside Sunset

Hillside Sunset
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is the 2nd shot processed from my camping weekend. It is a Hoya R72 infrared shot on my K200D body, with the kit 18-55 lens.

I took this from our campsite, looking over the neighbouring paddock as the sun set. I first took a couple of shots with a 30 sec shutter speed to get the exposure correct. I then adjusted the aperture and calculated the shutter speed that would be required to maintain the same exposure level, set the camera on bulb and took the shot.

This shot was a 134 sec exposure time, i was aiming for around 2 mins, but i lost count near the end, but it still came out fine. It was shot at f13.0, ISO 100.

It was processed in Lightroom 2.5, cropped to 16x9 and straightened slightly (i used the trees as a guide for where up is), white balance adjustment, converted to greyscale and had a contrast adjustment.

Hoya NDX400 (ND400) filter

I have finally given in and bought myself a good quality ND filter. I went with the Hoya NDX400 (9-stop) filter. I bought this filter as the only 2 filters I am confident of the quality with are this, and the B+W 110 (10-stop) filter, but the B+W in the 52mm size required for my kit lens is quite a bit more expensive than the Hoya. I bought the filter from Citiwide on ebay. They are a Hong Kong based ebay store, and the service was excellent. The filter was shipped the very next day after payment was made. It did take a little while to get here from Hong Kong, but I expected that.

I took the filter out for its first real use on the weekend when I went camping at Queen Mary Falls, not far from Killarney on the Darling Downs in Queensland. I took a few shots of the falls, starting off without the filter, then with the filter for a comparison. I will post up the results tomorrow. Its a beautiful area, and I will be posting a number of shots from around there over the next week or so, the previous photo of the Condamine River Head Waters is the first posted shot from the NDX400 filter, so I will post it again, just to make sure.

This filter certainly puts the cheap one I had previously to shame :) The colours are only slightly warmer than usual, but this might just be a white balance detection problem with the filter on more than colours themselves.

Condamine River Head Waters

Condamine River Head Waters
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is the head waters of the Condamine River, from here its nearly 3000 km journey to the sea, which it flows into near Adelaide in South Australia.

Taken with Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II, Hoya NDX400 filter and Slik 500DX Pro tripod. The shot was taken under a slightly cloudy sky around 10am, so it was not all that dark, with the NDX400 filter, ISO 100 and using an aperture of f-9.0 I was able to use a shutter speed of 30 secs to get a nice exposure. It took me a few goes to get the exposure spot on.

Processed in Lightroom 2.5, cropped, minor adjustments to levels.

I hope someone is noticing my obsession with 16x9 crops atm, loving them!

Sun on the Rocks and Trees

Sun on the Rocks and Trees
Originally uploaded by jezza323

3rd of the infrared shots from Sundays photo trip. This is with the sun to my back, coming up over the hill behind me. Looking out at the dead trees across Lake Moogerah. It took me about 3 goes to get the exposure right on this but it was worth it, although i was getting a bit worried the sun would come over the top of the hill and ruin it before i got it

This is probably the best shot of the day, at least i think so!

I took this with the Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II kit lens, Slik 500DX Pro tripod, remote cable release and of course the Hoya R72 infrared filter.

Processed in Lightroom 2.5, cropped, white balance adjustment and greyscale conversion. Also a slight bump in contrast.

A Roll In A Field

A Roll In A Field
Originally uploaded by jezza323

My friend and i spotted this paddock of hay bales on the side of the highway on the way back from our early morning shoot at Lake Moogerah. I've always wanted to shoot something like this, so it was great to get the opportunity.

Taken with the Pentax K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II lens, Hoya R72 filter and Slik 500DX Pro tripod. I handheld the shutter on this bulb, almost 3 mins!

Processed in Lightroom 2.5, adjusted white balanced, converted to greyscale, and minor contrast adjustment.